Star Fox: Path of Light
by jon3s115
Summary: Only a year has passed since Austin was vanquished. Star Fox and Lylat was once again at peace. Kevin had finally put his past behind him, no longer suffering from the brutal memories. The peace, however, would not last long. Star Fox is faced with a choice... either the light... or the dark...
1. Your Power?

**Your… Power?**

" … please, by any means, don't take this in the wrong direction. I ask that you try and understand where it is we are coming from."

I sat in a cold, metal seat in front of a very solid metal table inside of a rather silver, metal room- all sides metal with no detail in between. On one wall was a one way window pane and a speaker just below it- looking at myself but really to the other person just behind it. In each corner were cameras, spying on me and my every move and word, covering every single angle of the small room. Just beside the window panel was a door concealed and made to look like the wall it was attached to, hiding in plain sight. The air was bitter cold and the seat terribly uncomfortable- I at least understand what criminals go through just before being put in the slammer for their crimes.

I raised an eyebrow, "Kind of hard to, considering you dragged my ass here against my will…" I scolded as I sat forward, looking at the window pane, I sensed the speaker had cautious intentions and didn't want to be revealed, "And for the record" I said with a sarcastic chuckle, "you aren't hidden, not even in the slightest bit."

He sighed, "Before I continue, I must warn you of this- whatever is said in here, whatever subject matter is brought up, whatever names are revealed… it doesn't leave this room, this facility, this planet, this system, this galaxy. Are we clear?"

From what I could get from my current situation, I was being interrogated for reasons unknown by some super top secret organization that General Pepper himself probably has no idea exists. With no other choice, however, I nodded sarcastically, "Absolutely, because I'm always off galaxy in Andromeda or in Solana or Bogon, Mr. Kalen. Now, can we please get this over with? I don't even know why the hell I'm here..." I wasn't happy.

The voice sighed once more in defeat after hearing me call his name, "It has come to our… understanding... that you were given knowledge of an ancient civilization known as the Cerninians. This was passed on to you by the only known Cerinian in the galaxy, one Krystal McCloud."

Almost 4 years of having telepathy and I was just now being asked this? I nodded once more, "Boy are you guys late… but yes, this is correct, I was indirectly granted access to parts of my brain that allowed for telepathic abilities and the sort to be mastered through conventional means."

"She forced you?" The voice asked.

I chuckled, "Now you're putting words in my mouth?" I shook my head, "No… Prometheus, you know, the big bad alien that wanted to destroy Lylat and harvest its resources? The guy you, the big secret organization, should have copious amounts of documentation on? After he took over my body, I was left in my subconscious to watch as he simply used me for his overall goal. After I successfully overpowered his own essence, I regained control of myself and banished him from my body. Inadvertently, as I said before, a little bit of his knowledge stayed behind, this included unlocking my own brain to telepathy. You know, him needing to use my brain for his telepathy meant he needed to unlock it, so to speak." I explained, "But then again, you should know all of this…"

"Right..." The voice simply said as he rustled through some papers through the microphone, "This brings us to our next point. The knowledge that Mrs. McCloud passed on to you and the Council's Training you had received to control it, what does it extend to? What limits are there?"

I raised an eyebrow, I felt that they were trying to lean towards me passing it on to them for military purposes, "If you're wondering about what I can do with my telepathy and if I can pass it on, you're out of luck. For one, I am not as strong as you may think I am, and two, the knowledge isn't something anyone can simply take and use."

"Okay, well then what can you do?"

I sat back in my chair and sighed, "Well…" I jogged my mind, "if you are simply dying to know… I am capable of sensing another essence nearby, picking up on brain activity, reading emotions and intentions, control my very essence as a physical entity, and even weaponize my telepathy in the form of mental pain… that's all-"

"Stop" The voice said abruptly, "What do you mean by physical? I understood the weaponizing, it's straight forward, but physical?"

I sighed at the thought of a history lesson, I wasn't even wanting to be here in the first place, now I have to teach these people about something they should know of, "Cerinians were incredibly strong users of their magic. The magic was basically their own life force, so the stronger they were, the more potent their magic was, only further strengthened by their use in tandem with their technology." I took a deep breath, "By physical means, I am literally able to focus my own magic, or life force, into a physical entity, from then on it can be utilized in ways developed by the user."

"And you can do this?" The voice asked.

I shook my head, "Hardly, this ability is much like one civilization technology versus and completely different species technology- one can be more advanced in certain ways, but lacking in others that the aliens can do. Krystal can use her physical ability to heal wounds, whereas I cannot because I never ventured to advance it like hers. You seem to think that the Council Teachings are some god like super power, it's not. What I can do is at the greatest limit that the teachings offer."

"In essence, what are the teachings?"

"Oh for the love of god…" I groaned, "How much do you not know?" I paused and sighed, "Krystal's parents were among the strongest Cerinians. They were heads of the Council of Cerinia, which had other stronger Cerinians. At one point in time, not long before the planet was destroyed, they had decided to put together all they knew, what their strengths would allow, and made the Council Teachings- only someone who has tremendous strength would be able to control all of what it offered, able to take all of these foreign ideas and learn to manipulate their life force with their telepathy. Krystal was passed it by her father before she was sent off as a means of saving her, even though she cannot utilize it, and it has since been passed to me, which I am using it to its fullest extent. What I said I can do is exactly and only what I can do."

"Hmm" the voice simply pondered, rustling through more papers through the microphone.

I sat forward in my seat once more, letting out a deep sigh, "Like I said, this isn't some super power… it's just nature…". I could feel that the man on the other side of the panel was thinking. Another essence was with him, someone of higher stature and rank in this organization- possibly his direct overseer.

I was getting tired of this. I never supported anything secretive and actually hoped that when I first arrived in Lylat it would be a thing of the past. Of course, nothing is ever without secret- there will always be secrets be it for the best or for the worst.

The door slowly slid open, revealing a tall and burly tigrine with brown and black fur. He was wearing a blue and white uniform with medals on his left breast and had a patch on his arm, signifying that he was a Lieutenant. He smiled and gave a slight nod, "We appreciate the cooperation, Mr. Michelson. Please understand that this was only to determine your possible threat to security."

Me? A threat? After all I had done with the rest of Star Fox; keeping Lylat safe when all was thought to be lost, and I'm seen as a threat to security? A sudden burst of anger shot through my veins. I raised an eyebrow and got up from my seat walking right up to the tigrine and staring him down, "A threat, huh? For your information, even if I was some type of threat, you wouldn't be able to touch me… literally…" I paused, still staring down the tigrine with a disgusting look mere inches from his face, "Are we done? I would hate to leave so abruptly…" I snarled sarcastically, now even more pissed about the security comment.

The tigrine nodded once, not breaking his neutral expression on his face,"Yes… you're free to go now."

"Neither Krystal nor I better be bothered by this bullshit again" I growled before I brushed passed the Lieutenant and headed back the way I had come into the facility. "Believe me, even if you get someone else, like Fox, I'll know."

The emotions were strong. I was incredibly furious and terribly enraged at the comment he made about my status to this no name organization and even more so about why I brought there forcefully. I felt them as strong in the Lieutenant, he wasn't too happy about how the interrogation went, possibly because I didn't reveal the teachings to them.

Whatever the hell these guys wanted, I sensed they wanted no part in what I even had- as if they really only called me in to see if I was some threat to them.

No matter the reason, I wasn't going to let this bother me any further- it's done for and I won't be seeing them again...

 **To Be Continued…**

IM NOT DEAD! :D

You probably already can guess this, but this served as a type of resolution to what Kevin is in terms of his telepathy abilities and what telepathy is in the Starfox universe.

Is Kevin a god? No, he's just really good with his telepathy. Like Kevin said in the chapter- his telepathy compared to Krystal's is like two completely different species' technologies; some can be more advanced in ways the other is not and vice versa! (Hence why Krystal can use her's to heal whilst Kevin cannot).

Is telepathy magic? Yeah, Cerinians utilized the magic essence and furthered it with their own tech (just look at Krystal staff and then look at Sauria as a whole).

SO… this chapter doesn't give insight as to what the theme of the book is, but I CAN say that it is a returning theme. I tried it once before but it didn't catch on the first time. I feel I can do it now, so we're going to try again.

It will serve as canon for the Crossed Paths universe, taking place a mere year after A Past Threat.

What about Bloodlust? That's a spinoff that another reader and I are working on. Yeah it has Kevin Michelson and the crew, but it's still a spinoff.

ANYWAY! SEE YOU ALL NEXT CHAPTER!


	2. The First Sign

**The First Sign**

I felt darkness. My hands grasping onto my rifle firmly and my eyes fixated on my visor scanner. I watched the bar move over my radar repeatedly, searching for any signs of movement whatsoever- for hostiles.

"Nothing on the motion monitor" I heard Rose's voice over the comms. She was walking just ahead of me about 10 or so feet. She had her violet armor and her own DG 19 Gatling Gun scanning just ahead of her, her gaze focused more on the large blast door leading into a much larger structure. The structure was a base, around several stories high and more towards the center of a courtyard it resided in.

An uneasy feeling began to arise within me, for some reason, I felt like we were being watched intently. I shook my head, "I've got a really bad feeling about this… I can't even sense anything. No presence around us, no other entities, no life forces inside, nothing." The base we were approaching was reported to be abandoned, done so several generations ago when Corneria had first began to colonize the other planets in Lylat. Reports had come in that a local gang, one that rivaled Wolf's, had began to take shelter here. Of course, to avoid any acts of war, Pepper offered us the opportunity to investigate the reports.

We never had a good amount of intel to go off of for this mission. All that was relayed to us was that scouts stationed on the planet had began to notice activity from the same sector the base was located in. Rose and I were alone on this with the others on standby.

"Don't worry" Rose said as she looked back at me, "We've got this, what's a couple gang degenerates anyways."

"Good way to put it" Falco said over the comms with over exaggerated sarcasm.

Rose chuckled, "Oh hush now, I didn't mean you."

I rolled my eyes and raised my rifle up to meet the blast door. The panel to get inside was completely destroyed, missing even.

My eyebrow raised, "Well, whatever activity those scouts saw was possibly false. Aside from this big ass door there isn't any other way to get inside of this base." I said over the comms as I kneeled down to pick up some mechanical pieces belonging to the once functional control panel.

"Hmm" Peppy pondered over the comms, "This base _is_ almost two hundred years old. Chances are they could have blown their way in from one of the other sides."

Rose looked around, scanning the area, "Neither of us saw anything peculiar on our decent down here. Unless they fixed the hole they made there isn't any other methods of entrance."

The pieces to the circuitry amused me for some reason, they had apparent damage to them, but it didn't look like it was damage from a blaster.

"Are you sure the bioscans picked up signs of life here?" Rose asked with her gatling gun still scanning the area behind us, "Kevin can't even sense anything down here."

Slippy chimed in, "There's no way there can't be anything down there. The Great Fox's scanners have a near perfect accuracy."

I shrugged, still examining the pieces, "Near perfect is still not 100%." I got back up, still with a piece of the circuitry in my hand. I opened a camera feed with the rest of the team, "Slippy, what do you make of this?"

Over the comms I could hear him humming in question and examining the larger piece of the circuitry, "Weird… this thing was spliced."

"That's what I was getting from this." I said as I looked back up and at Rose, "Whenever this thing was destroyed, it doesn't look like it was shot, more like a fusion cutter sliced right through the thing." My helmet retracted so I could get a better look at the pieces.

"What a keen sense of observation you have there. But I'm afraid you're partially wrong." A voice rang from above the two of us. My head shot up above me and my rifle aimed right at the voice's source. Above the blast door on the catwalk was a robed man with a hood over his head. I could hardly make out the details of his face since he was so high up, but I was able to see the color of his eyes, they were a bright, glowing orange.

"Now now, I don't think it would be such a good idea to die with weapons in hand. Wouldn't you rather go out in peace?" The voice said with a sinister hiss.

"That supposed to scare us?" I rebutted.

The man simply chuckled and stepped up onto the railing he was leaning against. He then jumped off and fell a good 30 feet, landing perfectly on his feet and without any harm. Slowly he stood back up with a devilish smile on his face, "It already has…"

How in the hell was he able to get a read on me? Even with me staring directly into his eyes, I couldn't even feel if he was there- my telepathy was useless on this man.

"Kevin, Rose, stay put, we're on our way!" Fox yelled over the comms.

The man began to slowly walk towards us, "Look at you two, shaking in your metallic boots like children."

My eyes and rifle stayed glued to him. I felt something dark looming, it wasn't the man, but rather something more inevitable- it did not feel well and I feared the worst.

"Take one more step and I'll pump you full of plasma." I barked, taking a step forward towards the being.

The man burst into laughter. "You think you can touch me?!" He yelled through his laugh.

My senses peaked, I felt a grave danger approaching. Out of absolutely nowhere, he dashed forward at blinding speeds. The speed he moved was unfathomable, I stood in shock as he simply vanished from my sight. It was so fast that I couldn't even tell where the hell he went… until…

From behind me, I heard Rose yell out in agony. My heart sank to the bottom of my chest as her scream faded and was replaced with the sound of a dark, evil humming sound. The humming suddenly stopped and I could hear a small thud- a body colliding with the dusty floor below.

Slowly, I looked back only to see Rose drop down to the ground and the robed man standing over her with a small silver stick in his hand.

I felt all of my emotions immediately build up "ROSE!" I screamed before letting loose a stream of plasma bolts at the robed man with a loud and powerful war cry. Once again he vanished from sight, moving so quickly that I could hardly keep up with him.

"HOLD STILL, YOU LITTLE SHIT!" I yelled, still trying desperately to hit him.

"Come now" he said as he dashed around me avoiding the bolts of blue energy. "Fight me like a real man."

"You want to fight? Fine…" I ran out of ammo and threw the gun down, shooting my staff out of the the compartment in my arm, catching it and extended it, readying myself, "...I'll give you a fucking fight!"

The man stopped moving and was mere feet in front of me.

"A staff? That's your weapon?" He chuckled.

He grabbed the silver stick he had before once more. It was as if it appeared out of nowhere and landed directly into the palm of his hands- like it was hiding up his sleeve.

"How pitiful" he said before dashing forwards towards me. I felt nothing and everything… after a split second. Pain shot through my body as a beam of bright red energy pierced my body. It all happened so fast… a single movement that played out in less than a second.

"And here I was hoping you'd provide a form of entertainment for me…"

...

A burst of energy pulsed out of me as I shot my head up and off of my pillow. I was panting for breath and had streams of cold sweat dripping from my face and onto the blanket over me. I threw it off in desperation to cool off and sat up on the side of the bed, looking down at the floor still trying to catch my breath and shaking off the heart sinking feeling, watching the sweat droplets fall to the floor below. My mind was zapped with fear and emotional pain- it was all so real and… terrifying.

"Honey?" I heard a soft voice call out from behind me. Slowly I looked back, Rose was holding herself up with her arm, she had a concerned look on her face, "Oh my god, what's wrong." She exclaimed, still in a somewhat soft voice, as she saw the sweat dripping from my face. She immediately sat up completely and shifted over to sit next to me, her arm over my neck and hand on my forehead.

I was still slightly panting for air, but my gaze wouldn't shift from the floor.

"Kevin?" She asked softly trying to look into my eyes. He hand met my chin as she lifted my head up from its gaze upon the floor. I felt a tear bead up in my eye and out of pure relief I threw my arms around her and embraced her in a deep hug.

A shaky sigh left my mouth as I slowly released Rose. I wiped my face from the tears and sweat and gave her a soft smile. My emotions had been shocked to almost nothing, I felt little and only felt fear.

I struggled to speak, but managed anyway, "I'm… I'm sorry I woke you." I let out softly. My hands met my forehead as I leaned over once more, still shaky.

"Don't be" Rose said softly as she rubbed her hand across my back. "What happened"

I shook my head slowly and softly, "It… it was…" I stopped and let out another shaky sigh, "...it was just a bad dream. That's all."

Rose leaned up against me and wrapped her arms around my sides, squeezing gently, "More of them coming back?" She asked softly.

Neglectfully, I shook my head, but contradicted it regardless, "Yeah… guess I'm… guess I'm not free from them yet."

She let go of me and looked me in the eyes, "Hey, you've gone through hell and back before… you can get through this too."

I felt a smile creep upon my face, "I hope so. I don't want thit to be the start of something new…" I looked back up at her.

She smiled a warm smile and shook her head, "It won't"

The windows were still absent of light, Sol had yet come up over the horizon to shower Corneria with light. I looked over at the clock sitting just beside our bed- it was only 2:30 in the morning. Rubbing my face, I got up to my feet and stretched deeply, letting my muscles relax and finally get some action after being immobile.

"What are you doing?" Rose asked.

Looking back at her, I shrugged, "I… I don't think I'll be able to get back to sleep right now." I certainly couldn't with what I just experienced, no doubt a remnant to the scarring my mind suffered from long ago.

Rose nodded softly, "Okay honey"

"I can at least make some coffee for everyone when they wake up." I smiled and chuckled softly trying my sincerest to forget what I witnessed.

Never had anything like that crossed my mind before. I had always been contempt with my feelings for Rose, my wife. Ever since she had come aboard with the team, I was blinded by the consequences that would possibly rear their heads- the pain of loss. Never had I ever thought I would lose her during a mission or from a freak accident or even from natural causes. My feelings had grown so much for her that those ideas had completely escaped my mind- until now, of course. I couldn't help but wonder, at the same time, if Fox had gone through this- I haven't sensed such emotions from him, but then again I can't anyway since Krystal is closer to him than ever before, through matrimony.

Walking out of the room, I headed down stairs into the main living area. Just beside it was the kitchen. Walking in, I turned the lights on in both the kitchen and main foyer from a control panel just beside where you walk into the kitchen. As I did, however, I felt another presence nearby, and by nearby I meant in the same room.

A sigh of regret left my mouth, "Did I…" I stuttered as I turned around to look out into the living area, "... did I wake you too?"

A blue vixen wearing a violet robe was sitting on the couch, "That was an incredibly strong pain, Kevin."

My hands rubbed my face as I shook my head, "I'm really sorry, Krystal."

The vixen stood up with her arm folded, "You can't control that, don't be sorry. It's understandable."

I rested my hands on the kitchen bar and leaned into it, "I just…" I shook my head slowly, "... I just want this to go away. First it was the constant hammering and haunting of what happened with Wolf on Earth and now… this…" I dug my face into my hands, rubbing softly trying to ease the pain I felt in my head.

Krystal was silent for a moment. Contemplating the issue at hand, "You know" she said, "Fox never said anything, but he went through a similar phase just after we married."

I looked up at her, "Yeah? I don't doubt it… it's a consequence for being as close as we are for mercenaries."

She nodded, twiddling her thumbs, "He had nightmare after nightmare, all of them about the same idea- losing me." she walked over to the kitchen bar, just on the other side of me, "You fought the previous memories back and won, I know you can fight this back, just as Fox did."

I smiled with a soft chuckle, "Funny… Rose told me the same thing just a minute ago." I closed my eyes and let out one last sigh of relief, "I'm just happy it was only a dream."

 _To Be Continued…_


End file.
